Qatar gas site blast leaves 13 dead, at least 66 injured
The explosion and fire in the world’s biggest LNG export plant came during restart operations. The dead were from India and Pakistan
A huge blast at a Qatar gas hub killed 13 people and injured 66 others, the Gulf state’s energy minister said on Monday, one of the deadliest accidents at a Gulf energy facility.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the incident, which energy minister Saad al-Kaabi said was “an accident and not sabotage or hostile in nature”, after Iranian attacks targeted energy facilities in the Gulf during the war in the Middle East.
He announced “the tragic loss of 13 lives of our people who hold Indian and Pakistani nationalities. 66 people have been reported injured and are receiving medical treatment, none of whom are in life-threatening condition”.
An explosion tore through the nation’s key natural gas export terminal – also the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) hub – on Sunday night as workers tried to resume operations there after Iran bombed it during the war.
Earlier, the interior ministry had said a “technical incident” caused the explosion late on Sunday in the Gulf emirate’s Ras Laffan industrial zone.
The blast took place at a unit supplying gas to local firms and reverberated across the capital Doha.